THE ROMAN EXPERIENCE OF THE TEMPLE OF DIVINE TRAJAN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS Kevin S. Lee CLST 502 – Topography and Monuments of Rome Dr. Matthew McCarty Sunday, April 10, 2016 Lee 2 Figure 1 - Imperial Fora in the second century A.D., after E. Bianchi and R. Meneghini, Tav. II. Introduction The Forum of Trajan was the last of the five Imperial Fora built in Rome (Fig. 1).1 Designed by Apollodorus of Damascus for the emperor Trajan and built between c. A.D. 106-113, the new Forum celebrated the emperor’s victories in the two Dacian Wars, waged between A.D. 101 and 105. This richly appointed, victorious frame furnished the Imperial capital with new spaces for courts, orations, state ceremonies, and the promulgation of laws.2 Following Trajan’s death and divinization in A.D. 117, his successor and adopted son Hadrian erected a temple to the new god.3 The Chronography of A.D. 354 mentions this Temple of Divine Trajan in the same note as the Column of Trajan,4 suggesting the Temple stood in proximity to the Column on the northern side of 1 The others being, in order of construction, the Forum of Julius Caesar (c. 54 B.C.-44 B.C.), the Forum of Augustus (c. 31-2 B.C.), the Temple of Peace dedicated by Vespasian in A.D. 75, and the Forum 2 Packer, 1997: 4-8 and 2001: 4-5; Meneghini, 2009: 117-118; Maiuro, 2010: 194 3 Hist. Aug., Vit. Hadr. XIX, 9; Packer, 1997: 5 and 2001: 4 argues for A.D. 128 as the terminus ante quem for the Temple’s completion. 4 Not. Reg. VIII Lee 3 the Forum.5 This area has undergone extensive urbanization since the fifteenth century of the Christian era, and was not cleared by either the French excavations of Trajan’s Forum from 1811-1814 or the Fascist excavations of 1928-1934. 6 As such, the projected location of the Temple today lies beneath the Palazzo Valentini and the two Renaissance churches flanking it (Fig. 2),7 permitting only small-scale core sampling and excavation in its cellars. Figure 2 - Column of Trajan with the southern facade of Palazzo Valentini behind it. The Church of Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano stands to the right, while that of Santa Maria di Loreto stands out of frame to the left. Photo is the author’s own. 5 As with all the Imperial fora, that of Trajan is oriented northwest-southeast. To avoid unwieldy directional terminology, this paper uses site north rather than true north. 6 See Packer, 2001: 7-51 for the post-antique history of the Forum area and the archaeological investigations within it. 7 Santa Maria di Loreto to the west, Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano to the east Lee 4 Figure 3 - Gismondi's model (left) and Packer's (right). Naturally, the evidence from the Chronography, wedded with a Western predilection for symmetry, has undergirded the conjecture, held since at least Bartolomeo Marliani in 1534, that Hadrian erected the Temple honoring his divinized father on a direct axial alignment with the Column.8 Circumstantial evidence from the Forum of Trajan’s Imperial sisters, all of which feature temples aligned axially with their central long axes, has encouraged this reconstruction. Whether reflective of ancient reality or not, it has been enshrined in popular and scholarly conceptions of Trajan’s Forum thanks to its inclusion in the hugely influential reconstructions of Italo Gismondi and James E. Packer (Fig. 3). The confusing and fragmentary archaeological record from the Palazzo Valentini, however, throws this reconstruction into doubt. While Packer defends the axial orientation,9 Roberto Meneghini, who has carried out small excavations and core samplings in the Palazzo’s courtyard and cellars, restores the fragmentary columns and cornices as a grand colonnaded porch framing the Column of Trajan, rather than elements of the Temple of Divine Trajan. He reassigns that label to the two structures flanking the 8 For instance, von Blanckenhagen, 1954: 21. See Claridge, 2007: 55 for a brief history of the temple’s placement by scholars since the Renaissance. 9 Packer and Burge, 2003: 108-136 Lee 5 Column of Trajan, traditionally identified as the Libraries of the bibliotheca Ulpia.10 Amanda Claridge, however, based on the same archaeological evidence, has proposed an entirely novel reconstruction of the area north of the Column of Trajan, in which an offangle Temple dominates a vast plaza flanked to the west by a curved porticus (Fig. 4). Figure 4 - Temple of Divine Trajan and surroundings after Claridge, 2007. This paper concurs with Claridge’s reconstruction as the best accounting to date of the evidence scrounged from the Palazzo Valentini. If we accept this striking angled Temple as reality, a universe of questions opens up, not least of which is “Why?” While Claridge addresses this question in her article, this author wonders how such a layout would impact a Roman’s experience of this plaza. As such, this paper asks how an educated Roman of the mid-second century A.D. would have experienced this curious Temple complex. 10 It aims to answer this question with the aid of four pieces of Meneghini, 2009: 146-159 Lee 6 scholarship on Space and Place11: Amos Rapoport’s 1988 and 1993 reflections on levels of meaning and nonverbal communication in built environments, the frequently cited 1996 exploration of ideology as it is encoded in material culture by Elizabeth DeMarrais, Luis Jaime Castillo, and Timothy Earle, and sociologist Thomas F. Gieryn’s 2002 approach to buildings as “technological artifacts.” The preceding statement of intent requires some unpacking. First off, what does the paper mean by an “educated Roman” in the years c. A.D. 150? It envisages a native of the city of Rome, a man of Equestrian rank embarking upon his legal career. He is a man of means who balances business and leisure in his daily life: the basilica in the morning, baths and study in the afternoons and evenings. He has read his Greek and Latin masters, including the poets and Pliny the Elder. As such, he has a sense of how different marbles may color the meaning of the built environment.12 In a word, an “elite.” He visited the Forum of Trajan as a young boy, and is now returning as a novice lawyer to familiarize himself with his new workspace. The date, during the reign of Antoninus Pius, has been selected because the Temple and its environs have been wellused for some time, and as such can be experienced as a unit hosting established patterns of movement and activity. Unless otherwise specified, “Temple” as a proper noun will refer to Hadrian’s Temple of Divine Trajan, and “Forum” to the Forum of Trajan. The second matter is the chosen scholarship. At first glance, it is a hodge-podge. However, a deeper reading reveals them to be a united structure. Rapoport’s studies provide the foundation. DeMarrais et al. and Gieryn build off of them, throwing different analytical lights on the same experiential aspects of built environments considered by 11 The study of the reciprocal relationship between the physical world (space) and human modifications of it (place). See Fisher, 2009a and 2009b. 12 See Bradley, 2009 for the experience and meaning of color in the works of Roman authors. Lee 7 Rapoport. As such, in concert these approaches provide a powerful analytical toolkit for asking experiential questions of built environments. The term “built environment” has been used several times above. It is here defined as any setting purposefully altered and shaped by man to suit his needs and help him fulfill his goals. It can be anything from a small storage shed or multipurpose workroom in a house, to an entire landscape terraced and irrigated for agriculture. The Temple of Divine Trajan and its surroundings comprise just such an environment, and this paper answers its central question by sending the hypothetical Equestrian above on a walk through the Temple area. To equip the reader with the proper background, a detailed epitome of Claridge’s reconstruction is provided immediately below. The paper will then explain the approaches of Rapoport, DeMarrais et al., and Gieryn. These will then be used to describe the Equestrian’s experience as he moves through the Temple area on his way to the Forum. His navigation of the space and the impact of the Temple’s height, centrality, and color on his experience and understanding of this small portion of Rome will be examined in particular. The intent is to provide a theoretically anchored experiential reading of the space from the perspective of our Equestrian lawyer.13 13 Such readings of the Roman cityscape have been pioneered by Diane Favro, in particular in the second and seventh chapters of her 1996 book The Urban Image of Augustan Rome, wherein the chaotic Republican city of 44 B.C. is contrasted with that left by Augustus at his death in A.D. 14 from the perspective of fictional characters walking up and down the Via Flaminia. The fiction involved in such an approach is rightly suspect in academic work, as noted by Mary Jaeger in her critical review of Favro’s book (BMCR 97.4.23). Anchoring the Equestrian lawyer’s experience to accepted theory is this paper’s answer to Jaeger’s concerns. While a Roman would not describe his experiences using modern Space and Place jargon, the theory is meant to capture the essence of his experience rather than exact words. Lee 8 Figure 5 - Selection of fragments recovered from the Forum and Temple of Trajan. Reconstructed from Packer’s text (1997: 19-29; 2001: 10-15). Claridge on the Temple of Divine Trajan and its Environs From the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, excavations for apartment blocks and palaces brought to light sporadic remains of the Forum of Trajan and its associated Temple (Fig. 5). While an inscription fragment14 recovered in 1695 from the foundations of the demolished Church of San Bernardo a Colonna Traiani15 unfortunately cannot be restored with any confidence to the Temple,16 throughout the sixteenth century various 14 CIL VI.966=31215=ILS 305 Replaced by Santissimo Nome di Maria al Foro Traiano. 16 Claridge, 2007: 92, as a result of the inscription’s multiple lines, small letter heights, and heavy restoration. While this paper sides with Claridge due to the above, cf. Packer, 1997: 127, n. 31 argues that of the three known versions of the inscription, one was affixed to the Temple itself, the other two perhaps 15 Lee 9 construction projects brought fragments of cornice and of “approximately eight” column shafts of grey granites from Egypt17 to light in the same area, along with four partial entablature/frieze blocks, and fragments of smaller column shafts of giallo antico and pavonazzetto.18 In a 2007 article for the Journal of Roman Archaeology, Claridge reviews these disparate materials. She purposefully breaks with the long tradition, followed by Packer, of restoring an octostyle Temple akin to that of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus, and Meneghini’s recent but similar hypothesis of an octostyle colonnade. Instead, she produces a pseudoperipteral hexastyle Temple with narrow intercolumnations atop a high podium. 19 Her Temple features a porch three columns deep, with a “rather less conventional” inner group of four columns, thus producing an unusual pseudodipteral arrangement. The Corinthian order is used, the normaltyp following the reign of Augustus. Based on recovered shaft fragments, Claridge restores all outer porch columns as Claudian grey Egyptian granite shafts, with an inner group of Tiberian speckled blackand-white Egyptian granite (Fig. 6).20 From the same shaft fragments, she calculates all porch columns to have been fifty Roman feet (RF) high.21 Corinthian pilasters, either of white or grey marble, continued around the exterior wall of the cella. above the entrances to the temenos projected to surround the Temple. Claridge rules the latter out, as the present archaeological evidence makes a temenos for the Temple uncertain at best. 17 Packer, 1997: 458; Meneghini, 2009: 155. Claridge specifies them as Claudian grey and Tiberian blackand-white speckled. 18 Claridge, 2007: 59-70. See also Packer, 1997: 14-53, 460 and Packer, 2001: 10-31. Giallo antico is the Italian name for “Numidian yellow,” a purple-veined golden marble from Imperial quarries in northern Africa. Pavonazzetto is the term for “Phrygian purple,” a purple-veined white marble from Imperial quarries in what is today modern Turkey. 19 Claridge, 2007: 71-73 20 Claridge, 2007: 74 21 Claridge, 2007: 94 Lee 10 Figure 6 - Author's reconstruction of column color scheme on the outer (left) and inner (right) groups of columns. After Claridge, 2007. RGB values only approximate. Claridge identifies the unusually large central courtyard of the Palazzo Valentini as preserving the outline of the cella. This renders the Temple’s interior a great space one-hundred RF in length by sixty RF in width, and approximately eighty RF high.22 Based on the fragmentary shaft of giallo antico and that of pavonazzetto, Claridge restores the cella’s interior with two orders of columns, the lower of giallo antico, the upper of pavonazzetto, with the cult statue in a projecting aedicula distinguished by columns of another material such as Augustan red porphyry (Fig. 7).23 22 Claridge, 2007: 61, 73-74. For defense of her cella placement, see Claridge, 2007: 61-70 Claridge, 2007: 74. Packer (1997: 460), based upon the dimensions of the giallo antico and pavonazzetto shafts, restores the latter to the lower order, a reversal of Claridge’s scheme. While on its own this would 23 Lee 11 Figure 7 - Author's reconstruction of the interior and exterior order color schemes. After Claridge, 2007. RGB values only approximate. By locating the cella beneath the courtyard of the Palazzo Valentini, Claridge commits the Temple of Divine Trajan to an angle relative to both the Forum and the second century A.D. street grid. Rather than a disturbing violation of Roman axial planning, Claridge defends this angle as a distinguishing feature that emphasizes the Temple as a Hadrianic monument, related to but independent of the Forum of his adoptive father.24 Her reconstruction of the setting (Fig. 4) imagines the Temple as a peninsula extending into a large plaza (P on Claridge’s plan), which she identifies this as not substantially change the viewer’s experience, Claridge observes that Packer’s scheme does not allow for a barrel vaulted ceiling. A similar distinction of a central aedicula is seen in the East Hemicycle of the Forum, where two columns of Egyptian grey granite frame the rectangular recess in a chamber otherwise adorned by giallo antico and pavonazzetto pilasters. See Packer, 1997: 105, 420 and Packer, 2001: 63. 24 Claridge, 2007: 90-91. She further argues that any Roman predilection for grand axial planning between monuments is in fact a projection of Western architectural sensibilities. Contra Packer, she notes that while the Imperial Fora are orthogonally aligned with each other, they are not strictly axially aligned. Lee 12 the space referred to by Aurelius Symmachus as the platea Traiani.25 It is enclosed to the north and east by a succession of residential constructions dating from the second through fourth centuries A.D., to the south by the steps leading up to Trajan’s Column, and on the west by a curved porticus opening onto large halls (C and D) paved with Chian pink portasanta marble, indicating a general date between Domitian and Hadrian.26 While Claridge intriguingly argued that these halls were in fact the libraries of the bibliotheca Ulpia, they are more likely multipurpose auditoria.27 Furthermore, the Temple shared the platea with a curious structure (A) comprising four cross-vaulted rooms, conjectured by Claridge to either be a substructure for another temple, a monument, or rostra. The last option, which Claridge favors, in effect turns the plaza into great a theatral area for orations,28 thus connecting its function to that of the lecture halls. Selected Scholarship on Space and Place How does our lawyer “read” the environment described above? Two works by architect Amos Rapoport suggest he would read them like he would a scroll. All built environments, via their features and human occupants, communicate meanings on various levels, just like words on a page. In his contribution to Fernando Poyatos’ 1988 volume Cross-cultural Perspectives in Nonverbal Communication, Rapoport analyzed built environments as nonverbal communicators. In humans, nonverbal communication refers 25 Sym. Ep. 6.37; Claridge, 2007: 75. Claridge, 2007: 75-83. Associated as they are with a neighboring Hadrianic insula and Temple, the halls accessible from the curved portiucs are likely Hadrianic in date, creating a Hadrianic ensemble north of Trajan’s Forum. 27 Meneghini, 2009: 161 28 Claridge, 2009: 82; cf. Packer and Burge, 2003: 122-128, cited in Meneghini, 2009: 159, who use these parallel walls to argue in favor of the traditional location of the temple on axial alignment with the Forum 26 Lee 13 to facial expressions, body language, and similar actions, which wordlessly broadcast a person’s mood, levels of stress, etc. Rapoport similarly conceived of built environments as silent communicators of meaning, which can be apprehended via their shape and usage. 29 He argued that built environments proffer “cues for behavior” to their inhabitants, and that they “…both communicate meanings directly and also aid in other forms of meaning, interaction, communication, and co-action…they define the situation and thus remind people how to behave; this makes co-action possible. In that sense the built environment is a mnemonic.”30 Meaning is central to the built environment due to the types of behaviors it elicits. Rapoport breaks “meaning” into three types: “High-level” meaning, referring to cosmological orders, philosophical and cultural structures, and similar esoterica typically known to only a few; “Middle-level” meaning, broadcasting the achievement, resources, and identity of the environment’s shaper(s); and finally, “Lower-level” meaning, “mnemonic cues” informing the viewer how to use and properly behave in the space; the “who does what, where, when, including/excluding whom.”31 These levels are “ideal types structuring a continuum,”32 so in practice a built environment’s arrangement and decoration will feature different degrees of these levels. In his chapter submitted to the 1993 volume The Meaning of the Built Environment: a Nonverbal Communication Approach, Rapoport further explored how built environments communicate levels of meaning via fixed, semifixed, and nonfixed- 29 Rapoport, 1988: 318 Rapoport, 1988: 320-321; cf. DeMarrais et al., 1996: 16-17: “Materialized ideology molds individual beliefs for collective social action. It organizes and gives meaning to the external world through the tangible, shared forms of ceremonial events, symbols, monumental architecture, and writing.” 31 Rapoport, 1988: 325-334 32 Rapoport, 1988: 325 30 Lee 14 features. Rapoport adopted these categories from The Hidden Dimension, Edward T. Hall’s 1966 study of proxemics. Fixed-feature elements are architectural components such as walls and doors, paved spaces, and other solid structures that change infrequently and can communicate different levels of meaning via their configuration and decoration. Their communication is aided by semifixed-features, broadly defined as the physical objects that populate fixed-feature spaces: furniture and other movables, and their arrangements. Finally, there are nonfixed-featues: the attitudes, dress, eye and body language, and other highly variable aspects of the built environment’s occupants.33 This is the human dimension, and is in a constant state of flux. Different aspects of Rapoport’s observations are highlighted by the other two pieces of Space and Place scholarship employed by this paper. In a 1996 article for Current Anthropology, Elizabeth DeMarrais and her co-authors state “ideology is as much the material means to communicate and manipulate ideas as it is the ideas themselves”34 (emphasis original). They identify four channels for making an ideology concrete.35 The first comprises “ceremonial events” such as ritual celebrations, parades, feasts, oratorical and theatrical performances, and their repetition across time.36 While operating at all levels of meaning, ceremonial events involve a great number of nonfixedfeatures as the participants interact with each other. The second consists of “symbolic objects and icons,” such as special clothing, paintings and sculptures, and other movables 33 Rapoport, 1993: 87-97 DeMarrais et al. 1996, 15-16; cf. Mumford, 1961: 113: “…the city performs an equally important function that I have described elsewhere: the function of materialization. Though Toynbee completely overlooks this aspect of the social process, it stares one in the face as one walks around the city; for the buildings speak and act, no less than the people who inhabit them; and through the physical structures of the city past events, decisions made long ago, values formulated and achieved, remain alive and exert influence.” 35 DeMarrais et al., 1996: 17-19 36 DeMarrais et al., 1996: 17 34 Lee 15 used in these events. The connection with semifixed-features on a continuum between middle- and high-level meanings should be apparent. The third channel is the setting of these events, defined as “public monuments and landscapes” that tie a people to a place and forge a top-down society. These map to Rapoport’s fixed-feature elements and can operate at all levels of meaning. The fourth channel identified by DeMarrais et al. is writing realized in stelae, inscriptions, and documents. In essence, DeMarrais and her coauthors study four ways a culture can shape its environment to communicate meaning and organize group life. These channels build off some of Rapoport’s general observations. Ceremonial events, for instance, are a subset of a general class of goal-oriented human actions that Rapoport termed “activities.” The purpose of built environments is to provide places for the conduct of these activities, to facilitate their organization into “activity systems,” and communicate their meaning. 37 This meaning is communicated at all levels by a combination of fixed, semifixed, and nonfixed-features. An example from the Forum of Trajan was the congiarium held in the Basilica Ulpia during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180), in which his son Commodus, still only clad in a youth’s toga, presided and handed out donations to citizens of Rome.38 At the highest level, this associated Commodus with his predecessors, and ultimately the gods. At the middle level, Commodus’ youthful toga contrasted with his position as a patron doling out goods to his clients, emphasizing his liberalitas, his ability to (at least symbolically) provision his people from his own resources, and thus his fitness to rule. At the lower levels, his body 37 Rapoport, 1988: 318 Hist. Aug. Comm. 2.1; Millar, 2004: 103-104 supposes that these were coins from the Imperial treasury stored nearby. 38 Lee 16 language – seated, and moving gently and purposefully39 if at all – broadcasted serenity and security, reassuring his future subjects. Aided by the magisterial setting in a monument built by one of Commodus’ greatest predecessors, and set amid the context of a long line of Imperial congiaria dating back to Julius Caesar,40 the event announced Commodus as Marcus’ successor. By providing a place for Marcus to formalize the line of succession, the Basilica Ulpia aided in preserving the stability of the Empire. In a 2002 study, sociologist Thomas F. Gieryn wrote that buildings “stabilize social life” by providing fixed spaces in which humans tend to perform routine activities. However, buildings stabilize “imperfectly” (emphasis original) as a result of destruction, reuse and renovation, and reinterpretation of their purposes.41 Gieryn explores how buildings act as imperfect social stabilizers via three concepts adopted from constructivist studies of technology: heterogeneous design, black-boxing, and interpretive flexibility. 42 These terms respectively map onto the design, construction, and use/reuse/destruction phases of a building’s lifecycle. Design is heterogeneous in the sense that it involves planning in both the material and social dimensions. When an architect creates a blueprint, he has made plans not only for a physical structure, but also a map of the human activities and social relations therein. As such, impacted parties wish to have their say in the design process, and may come into conflict if one party’s desires are incompatible with another’s. The architect must navigate these competing interests, resulting in numerous possible designs on the 39 Neudecker, 2010: 172 noted that the weight of the toga encouraged slow, deliberate movements on the parts of magistrates and judges. 40 Maiuro, 2010: 208-209 41 Gieryn, 2002: 35 42 Gieryn, 2002: 41-45 Lee 17 drawing board. The same building can go through numerous iterations during this process of jockeying and deal-making. If successful, one design is chosen. In construction, planned workrooms, recreation spaces, and the corridors and paths between them are made solid. The configuration of spaces prescribes certain likely courses of movement and interaction among the building’s inhabitants. When construction makes these spaces real, these likely courses become real as well. Inhabitants may not consciously realize that the building works this way, but work it does, and as such becomes a “black-box” sealing a stabilized universe of social interactions within itself. To a large degree, black-boxing and the materialization of ideology overlap. Humans being radically free and unpredictable, however, inevitably reconfigure the building through use. This reconfiguration may be a new interpretation of the building’s meaning, or a physical change in its structure or layout.43 The building’s meaning to its users is thus always flexible. Gieryn’s application of the above to the Biotechnology Building at Cornell University revealed how the designers’ hopes and intentions for the structure’s use were sealed in stone, but inevitably through use the building’s meaning was modified by its inhabitants, in many cases those same designers. Where Rapoport’s environmental features and levels of meaning, in conjunction with DeMarrais et al.’s avenues of ideological materialization, can shed light on a building’s layout, use, and decoration at any given time, Gieryn’s approach adds a diachronic aspect. 43 Gieryn, 2002: 44 refers to the former as “discursive” reconfiguration, and the latter as “material” reconfiguration (emphases original). Lee 18 The application of the above approaches to the Temple of Divine Trajan and its immediate vicinity is complicated by our fragmentary knowledge. To truly test the impact of Rapoport’s levels of meanings and features, extended observation of a space’s use is required, and modern scholars are two millennia too late to observe Romans using the platea Traiani and its structures. Heterogeneous design is difficult to gauge, as we lack any of the drafts and models used by Hadrian’s architect(s), or minutes from planning meetings. Perhaps most concerning is the fact that the built environment this paper ties all of its observations and conclusions to is for the moment entirely hypothetical. However, as Claridge observes, at present all reconstructions of the area north of the Column of Trajan are hypothetical and will change with future evidence. This paper and its conclusions are similarly adaptable. The Roman Experience of the Temple of Divine Trajan and its Environs Accepting the outlines of Claridge’s reconstruction, how does the arrangement of the Temple area affect the experience of our Equestrian lawyer? Let us say he approaches from the north, since that is the direction best attested archaeologically. He ascends the stairs from a narrow alley and enters the platea Traiani.44 A prospect opens up before him in which the Temple intrudes at an angle to his left, partially obscuring the Libraries and Column of Trajan’s Forum, while the porticus and its lecture halls curve away to his right. Directly ahead of him stands the rostra. Crowds mill about the square, with the highest concentrations wherever there is an attraction: under the porticus for 44 Meneghini, 1996: 72, cited in Claridge, 2009: 75, interpreted the plaza and the terrace beneath it as a means of negotiating the elevation change between the Via Flaminia/Via Lata and the Forum of Trajan. Lee 19 shelter from the sun, around the rostra to hear an orator’s harangue or watch a trial, around vendors’ carts, and the like. The empty space between the attractions will be a less densely occupied area of passage as individuals move between the attractions and attend their daily business.45 Consider the fixed-feature elements of the platea Traiani and their arrangement: Temple, angling rightwards, rostra dead ahead, the porticus and lecture halls curving away to the right. This directs our Equestrian’s movement rightwards by providing an attractive, wide alternative to the increasingly narrow path between the rostra and Temple. His route will be further affected by the semi- and nonfixed-features in the plaza: vendors’ carts, gathered crowds and their level of animation or agitation, excessively hot or wet weather making the porticus a more attractive means of passage, and the like. As such, the final design of the platea Traiani has black-boxed a universe of preferred, somewhat predictable movements.46 In the example above, the combination of fixed-, semifixed-, and nonfixedfeatures help the Equestrian navigate through the platea Traiani. Should he need to meet a client here, he scans the area for landmarks more specific than just “Temple” and “rostra.” Statues, which we should interpret as semifixed-features, can play this role. They are semifixed-features because they can be added to and subtracted from the space 45 This is based on the author’s personal observations of movement patterns around a similarly amorphous open space at the University of British Columbia, the vast new “University Square” in front of the NEST, the equally new Student Union building. At any given time, the most densely occupied portions of University Square were the benches around the perimeter and the grassy, shaded knoll adjacent to the NEST entrances. Unless an event such as Storm the Wall temporarily filled the square, the large paved plaza itself was sparsely peopled with students passing through to their destinations. Most intriguingly, these students-in-transit fanned out to “fill” the plaza like a gas to fill its container. This instinctive horror vacui in essence prevented the large open space from ever being too overwhelmingly open. 46 Gieryn, 2002: 61: “Buildings insist on the particular paths that our bodies move along every day, and the predictable convergence or divergence of these paths with those of others is (in a sense) what we mean by structured social relations.” Lee 20 within a short period of time.47 Changes in the statuary change landmarks and thus the navigation and use of the space, while also demonstrating interpretive flexibility. We know from the Forum of Augustus that statues and columns served as identifiable locations key for organizing the chaos of numerous meetings and trials.48 We also know that Augustus’ Forum became quickly filled by statuary over the course of the first century A.D., depicting subjects from goddesses to friends of the emperor, thus warping to some degree Augustus’ gallery of great Roman heroes.49 Similar changes in the statuary are known from the Forum of Caesar,50 the Forum of Trajan, and the old Republican Forum in the fourth century A.D. In this and the subsequent century, Senatorial statues came to predominate in the old Imperial Fora, while statues of powerful generals increasingly displaced those of emperors in the Republican Forum.51 We thus see interpretive flexibility at work in the Imperial Fora, though it is important not to overstate the degree to which they became “Senatorial” as opposed to “Imperial” spaces in Late Antiquity.52 Statue arrangements in public spaces thus changed over the 47 Packer, 1997: 5-8 and 2001, 4-5, and Chenault, 2012: 119-120 note the addition under Marcus Aurelius of statues of his tutor Marcus Fronto and honored veterans of the Marcomannic Wars to the Forum of Trajan. In contrast, the fate of the Equus Domitiani in the Republican Forum demonstrates how quickly a landmark statue could disappear after its erection. See Thomas, 2004: 21. Domitian’s damnatio memoriae and the subsequent fate of his equestrian monument in fact demonstrate the converse of DeMarrais et al.: the dematerialization of an ideology. 48 Neudecker, 2010: 163-167 provides an experiential recreation of the Case of Iusta, a case over the liberta status of a woman of Herculaneum, heard in the Forum of Augustus at different times between A.D. 74 and 79. The summonses, preserved thanks to the eruption of Vesuvius, indicate specific locations within the Forum to rendezvous at. Neudecker similarly recounts the preserved summonses for different Herculanean businessmen, ordering them to meet beneath a specific statue before a numbered column. 49 Neudecker, 2010: 166-168. Statues known include one of Diana Lucifera. And another of Gnaeus Sentius Saturninus the Younger, who accompanied Claudius on the latter’s conquest of Britannia. 50 Maiuro, 2010: 195, 221 51 Chenault, 2012: 124-125 52 Chenault, 2012: 115 notes the “message of harmony between senate and emperor” conveyed by inscriptions on the statue bases emphasizing the emperor’s (most frequently Constantine I the Great) approval. Cf. Packer, 1997: 47 and 2001: 27, who notes the discovery of a statue of Constantine dedicated by Quintus Attius Granius Caelestinus, found during excavations near the since-demolished Church of Santa Maria in Campo Carleo at the southern end of the Forum of Trajan in 1829. Though the continued absence of the fourth century emperors from Rome certainly caused strain, the positive reception of Trajan Lee 21 mid-to-long term. Unfortunately, no statues are yet known from the platea Traiani. The neighboring Forum of Trajan, however, was replete with them.53 It is a fair supposition that, as an associated space, the Temple area hosted statues as well, most likely in the curved porticus and atop the rostra and Temple podium. These could be used like those in the Forum of Augustus to help the Equestrian and his clients organize meetings and navigate the space. Built environments provide cues for behavior and meaning as well as navigational aids. Rapoport provided a list of possible cues present in an environment (Fig. 8). Happily, he discusses in detail three that are either preserved in the archaeological record, or can be accurately reconstructed from it: height, centrality, and color. Due to spatial constraints, this paper primarily considers only these cues. Though exceptions exist, a greater height, perhaps provided by walls, supports, or steps, and central location for a building indicate higher importance and status.54 Color, as seen in painted walls or polychrome marbles, is highly distinctive and as such can be used to send sharp nonverbal cues.55 As our Equestrian sweeps across the platea Traiani, his experience is impacted by the Temple’s height relative to other structures, both in the immediate area and beyond. The column dimensions restored by Claridge are ten RF higher than those of the Pantheon. This is especially significant in light of the well-known disconnect between the Pantheon’s intended and actual pediments, and Lise Hetland’s redating of it to the among period historians such as Ammianus Marcellinus (see Edbrooke, 1975: 413-415) and the continued presence of his great equestrian statue in the Forum that bore his name ensured that the Forum remained a shared Imperial-Senatorial space. 53 Packer, 1997: 59, 105 and 2001: 35, 63 and Meneghini, 2009: 121-126 note Corrado Ricci’s discovery of colossi of Livia, Agrippina the Younger, and Nerva, as well as two torsos, one cuirassed, the other togate during the Fascist excavations of 1928-1934. 54 Rapoport, 1990: 107, cited in Fisher, 2009b: 197 55 Rapoport, 1993: 107-114 Lee 22 reign of Trajan based upon the preponderance and locations of Trajanic brick stamps.56 Mark Wilson Jones in fact proposes that the columns Claridge assigns to the Temple of Divine Trajan were requisitioned by Hadrian from the Pantheon, thus forcing the infamous pedimental compromise.57 In conjunction with a proportional podium and pediment, the Temple of Divine Trajan was a slender giant dominating but not overwhelming the plaza. Packer, commenting on the Basilica Ulpia, noted that architecturally the Basilica consciously evoked earlier monuments such as the Basilica Aemilia and earlier Imperial Fora, but “utterly surpassed them in size, in close integration in the architecture of the surrounding complex, in grandiose design, and in luxurious materials.”58 Claridge posits the same for the Temple of Divine Trajan. Her restored hexastyle design looks back to previous hexastlye temples honoring divinized emperors.59 Similarly, the lateral stairs restored by Claridge recall those on the Temple of Venus Genetrix in the neighboring Forum of Caesar.60 Trajan had restored both this forum and its temple, which was in fact rededicated the same day as his Column in A.D. 113.61 By combining elements recalling Trajan’s restoration of a Caesarian monument with a grandiose upscaling of the traditional hexastyle temple, Hadrian did to the temples of his predecessors what Trajan 56 Hetland, 2007, cited in Claridge, 2007: 94 Wilson-Jones, 2000: 199-212, cited in Claridge, 2007: 94 58 Packer, 1997: 244 59 Claridge, 2007: 73; the Temple of Divine Julius dedicated by Augustus in 29 B.C. in the Roman Forum, often restored as hexastlye, the Temple of Divine Augustus as it is depicted in the coinage of Caligula of A.D. 39, the Temple of Divine Claudius on the Caelian erected by Nero (reigned A.D. 54-68), and that of Titus and Vespasian erected by Domitian (reigned A.D. 81-96) in the Roman Forum. 60 Claridge, 1998: 150; Claridge, 2007: 67. Claridge also points out they resemble those on the Temple of Apollo Medicus Sosianus, rebuilt in 32 B.C. by Gaius Sosius. The resulting “tribunal” at the top of the lateral stairs may thus date back to the beginning of Caesar’s Forum, and was replaced rather than added in the reign of Domitian. See Mauiro, 2010: 190. 61 Fast. Ost., IIt 13.1.5, 203, cited in Maiuro, 2010: 194, n. 16 57 Lee 23 had done to older state monuments.62 That Hadrian may have done so by filching columns from his adoptive father’s Pantheon project suggests the priority of the Temple of Divine Trajan versus that of all the gods for the new emperor. Figure 8 - Behavioral cues provided by the environment. After Rapoport, 1993. 62 Cf. Packer, 1997: 272-273 on the Basilica Ulpia: “Repeating their achievements, it surpassed them on their own terms.” Lee 24 Figure 9 - Republican Forum of Rome. After Claridge, 1998. Figure 10 - Capitoline Hill. After Claridge, 1998. The Temple’s dominance of the platea Traiani is nuanced, however, by the Column of Trajan, which towers over its immediate surroundings and, like the Mausoleum of Augustus, lifts its crowning bronze colossus of Trajan up to the heavens. Rather, it gives way before it, not only in height but in experience. Due to the Temple’s Lee 25 elevation, as the Equestrian enters the plaza, the bronze colossus of Trajan may only be just visible above the Temple’s eaves. As a result of the Temple’s angle, however, as the Equestrian moves around the plaza, the Column containing the ashes of Trajan and his wife Plotina gradually sweeps into view, and the Temple deferentially recedes before it. The Temple’s angle is arguably the most curious aspect of Claridge’s reconstruction. Given heterogeneous design, why, of all the possible iterations, choose this? As noted above, Claridge states that the oblique angle may be a purposeful act of Hadrianic distinction. We can flesh this proposition out by considering what ideology the angle materializes. The answer is one of filial piety within the context of respect for Roman continuity. The existence of the Temple itself, as well as its recession before the Column, demonstrates Hadrian’s filial deference before his adopted parents. The angle, meanwhile, and its defiance of strict axiality, recalls the arrangement of temples around the Republican Forum. In contrast to the other Imperial Fora, neither the Republican Forum of Rome (Fig. 9) nor the Forum of Trajan were dominated by a perfectly frontal axial alignment. The Temples of Saturn, the Castors, Concord, and Vesta huddled around the square off the main axes. The temples that came closest to pulling off this feat were located on the eastern side of the Republican Forum. The Regia, first built prior to 600 B.C. and rebuilt numerous times prior to Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus’ landmark restoration in marble and travertine of 36 B.C., served as the Republican Forum’s eastern anchor. This effect was undercut, however, by the Regia’s main entrance facing east, opening onto the Via Sacra and thus turning its back to the forum square. The Temple of Divine Julius, dedicated by Augustus in 29 B.C., replaced the Regia as the forum’s eastern anchor and opened onto Lee 26 the square, yet was not exactly aligned with the Republican Rostra or the travertine pavement laid down by Lucius Naevius Surdinus after 14 B.C. Unquestionably, the dominant temple in the area was that of Jupiter atop the Capitoline, but it ruled over the forum at a markedly oblique angle (Fig. 10). By breaking with the axial tradition of the Imperial Fora, Hadrian recalled an earlier tradition in which the king of the gods dominated Roman affairs at an angle. The Temple of Divine Trajan oversees the activities within its vicinity in a similarly oblique manner. By subtly recalling this older tradition, Hadrian properly honored his adopted father as a divus worthy to rule with Jupiter in the everlasting realm of the gods. As a fixed-feature element, the Temple thus black-boxes this high-level meaning into the platea Traiani. Just as height and angle affect the ideology materialized by the Temple of Divine Trajan, so does its position within the platea Traiani. Rapoport notes that, with exceptions, centrality emphasizes the relative importance of a structure. At an oblique angle off-center to the rest of the plaza, the Temple presents an interesting case. The rostra in fact geographically replaces the Temple as the plaza’s central element. If the rostra is taken as a unit with the curved porticus and lecture halls, the western half of the plaza becomes a great educational zone able to house indoor and outdoor lectures, orations, recitations, and the like. 63 The rostra’s centrality would emphasize the preeminence of this educational area, making the Temple a sedate backdrop to this ‘University of Hadrian.’ However, this does not necessarily deemphasize the Temple. Rather, the Temple’s angle, in contrast the rostra’s axiality, causes the former to immediately jump out. If anything, this tempts the Equestrian’s eye towards the Temple, thus centralizing it 63 Claridge, 2007: 74-84 Lee 27 visually. Furthermore, an element does not have to be in the center to be the center. The Equus Traiani, the great equestrian statue of Trajan in his Forum, demonstrates this apparent paradox. Originally conjectured to be in the center of the vast open Forum Square, on the central visual axis between the East and West Hemicycles, Meneghini’s excavations located the base closer to the monumental egress at the Forum’s southern end (Fig. 11).64 Due to its size and open surroundings, however, it nonetheless stood as the central visual element, as the wonder it elicited from Constantius II and his entourage indicates.65 In much the same way, by leveraging its distinctive features – its angle and height – within its surroundings, the Temple of Divine Trajan acted as the central fixedfeatured of the platea Traiani. Figure 11 - Expected and Actual Locations of the Equus Traiani in the Forum of Trajan. After Bianchi and Meneghini, 2009. 64 65 Meneghini, 2009: 120 Amm. Marc. 16.10.15-16 Lee 28 This materializes another ideology re: the plaza. As noted in the Fora of Caesar and Augustus, a temple surrounded by portici in essence made these fora sanctuaries to the Julian family.66 By configuring a temple and lecture area in such a manner as to make the former a backdrop for the latter, Hadrian made the Plaza of Trajan and its area of erudition into the Sanctuary of Trajan. Hadrian thus black-boxed a sacred meaning into his athenaeum. As divine as learning is, the sacred nature of such spaces also renders them acceptable locations for courts.67 The Temple thus identifies the platea Traiani as an acceptable place for the Equestrian to ply his trade. Further, it could serve as an overflow court space to relieve pressure on the Forum of Trajan. The positioning of the Temple, auditorium porticus, and rostra thus create a space that the Equestrian can experience simultaneously as a holy place of learning and law. Finally, we consider color. In this, the Temple serves as a foretaste of the Forum. The entire rear and side façades were veneered in white marble.68 Claridge provides two possible reconstructions of the Corinthian pilasters that broke this façade into bays. In the first, the pilasters were also of white marble. In the other, the pilasters were of Claudian grey marble from Egypt. The former presents a chromatically unified façade, while the latter offers the Equestrian a more varied visual experience. As the Equestrian moves around the Temple, the porch columns increasingly enter into view atop their high podium. An outer screen of Claudian grey hides the inner group of Tiberian speckled granite, also from Egypt. As the Equestrian continues to follow the general curve of the plaza, tantalizing glimpses of the Tiberian columns will dance in and out of view behind their Claudian screen. 66 Meneghini, 2009: 44; Maiuro, 2010: 193; Neudecker, 2010: 177-178, De Angelis, 2010: 6-8; Neudecker, 2010: 161 68 Either Luna from Tuscany or Pentelic from Mt. Pentelicon outside Athens. 67 Lee 29 The waltz of white and grey prepares the Equestrian for the Forum of Trajan. The Temple’s white marble veneer previews that of the Forum’s superstructure, the peristylar court around the Column of Trajan, and the great Forum Square, while the copse of Claudian grey columns presages the “forest” of the same awaiting the Equestrian within the Basilica Ulpia.69 If he is able to gain access to the Temple’s cella,70 he will find that it hides another universe of color. The interior is divided into two orders of engaged columns. The lower order comprises golden half-columns of giallo antico, carrying a frieze of palms and lotus flowers. Atop this is the second order, consisting of purpleaccented white pavonazzetto half-columns. They presumably feature bases and Corinthian capitals of white marble.71 Springing from these is a coffered barrel vault,72 further increasing the sensation of height within the chamber. At the far end of the cella 69 Claridge, 2007: 74. She characterizes this visual connection as an “Ulpian family ‘signature.’” Two identical Claudian grey columns also framed the tribunal in the East Hemicycle. See Packer, 1997: 420. The Claudian grey columns of the Temple porch similarly anticipate the “rich if somber” slabs of grey Egyptian granite paving the floors of the Libraries. See Packer, 1997: 125. Regarding the Temple’s white façade and its visual connection to the Forum, see Packer, 1997: 35, 113 and 2001: 72 for the Columnar Peristyle and Packer, 1997: 142 and 2001: 26 and Meneghini, 2009: 118 for the Forum Square. 70 If not, he will still be able to experience the parallel elements in the Forum, discussed below. The Temple’s allusions to them, however, will remain hidden from him and known only to the few with access. 71 This was the standard for columns and pilasters throughout the Forum. See for instance Packer, 1997: 231 and 2001: 154 for the columns of the Basilica Ulpia and 1997: 96-99 and 2001: 61-63, 181 for the East Colonnade and Hemicycle. Though only a small portion of the West Colonnade was uncovered by Corrado Ricci during the Fascist excavations of 1928-1934, his findings suggest an identical decorative scheme. See Packer, 1997: 65 and 2001: 35, 60. 72 Claridge, 2007: 74; cf. Packer, 1997: 42 and 2001: 26 for a fragment of coffered ceiling recovered by the French excavations of 1811-1814. Claridge, n. 98, likens this to the barrel vault in the Temple of Divine Hadrian, though notes that sprang from a single order. The reconstruction of two orders within the Temple of Divine Trajan is simply to account for the giallo antico and pavonazzetto fragments. Regarding her proposed frieze of palmettes and lotus, Claridge cites no evidence. However, thematically these are similar to the vegetal friezes in the Forum of Trajan. See Packer, 1997: 113, 444-445 and 2001: 21, 72 for the interior and exterior friezes of the Peristyle surrounding the Column of Trajan, 1997: 220, 438-439 and 2001: 147 for the exterior frieze above the porch columns of the Basilica Ulpia, 1997: 233 and 2001: 154, 158-159 for the friezes within the Basilica. Lee 30 stands a projecting aedicule, holding the cult statue of Divine Trajan and distinguished by columns of Augustan red porphyry.73 When the Equestrian enters the Forum, he will be reminded of these Temple elements. The Forum is replete with pavonazzetto columns and pilasters. The Equestrian will encounter them in the Peristyle around the Column of Trajan, within the West Library, and the West and East Colonnades framing the Forum Square.74 Throughout the Forum, columns and pilasters of giallo antico act as shocking, “vivid” frames and borders for the more understated pavonazzetto elements.75 The Temple’s aedicula mirrors the one in the West Library, which projects into the reading space and distinguished from the pavonazzetto colonnades by giallo antico shafts.76 Finally, though not in the Temple, the pink portasanta pavers in the lecture halls visually tie them to the opposite end of the Forum, the South Peristyle recently brought to light by Meneghini’s excavations, whose porticoes were paved with alternating slabs of grey-green cipollino and pink portasanta marble.77 73 This would visually tie the Temple to the “Sala Trisegmentata,” uncovered by Meneghini’s recent excavations at the southern end of the Forum, if in fact this space was paved in porphyry and thus the Porticus Porphyretica attested in Hist. Aug. Probus 2.1 and CIL 15.7191. See Meneghini, 2009: 135 and 162, n. 50. 74 Packer, 1993: 426 and 1997: 121-125 for the West Library; 1997: 113, 444-445 and 2001: 72 for the Columnar Peristyle; 1997: 96-99 and 2001: 61 for the Colonnades. Based on numismatic evidence, Packer, 1997: 219 and 2001: 147, also reconstructs a pavonazzetto colonnade behind the porches of the Basilica Ulpia on the Forum Square. Meneghini dismisses this novel proposal and replaces Packer’s column screen with a wall. 75 Packer, 1997: 269 and 2001: 147, 181. See Packer, 1997: 219 and 2001: 147 for the porches of the Basilica Ulpia; 1997: 242-243 and Meneghini, 2009: 124-125 for the Basilica’s Apses and Tribunals; 1993: 426, 1997: 121-125 and 2001: 78-79 for the West Library; 1997: 105-111 and 2001: 63, 181 for East Colonnade and Hemicycle. Other framing functions of giallo antico include steps around the Forum Square (Packer, 1983: 165; 1997: 39, 86, 96-99, 218, 272-274, 421 and 2001: 21-22, 54, 61, 146-147), and borders in the pavements of the West Library (Packer, 1997: 121-125 and 2001: 78-79), Basilica Ulpia (Packer, 1997: 229, 233-238, 269-272 and 2001: 153-154, 181), and East Colonnade and Hemicycle (Packer, 1997: 43, 99, 264, 421 and 2001: 26, 60-69). 76 Packer, 1997: 121-125 and 2001: 78-79 77 Meneghini, 2009: 137 Lee 31 Figure 12 - Pavement patterns in the Forum of Trajan. After Packer, 1997. The usage of the same marbles visually ties the Temple area of the son to the Forum of the father, further materializing the ideology of filial piety. Beyond such highlevel meanings, a more functional use for the polychrome marbles is distinguishing certain spaces for certain uses. The Forum of Trajan likely employs flooring to communicate low-level meanings and behavioral cues. Packer posits that the “brick-like” pattern of alternating giallo antico and pavonazzetto slabs in the side aisles of the Basilica Lee 32 Ulpia (Fig. 12) marked “less important areas of passage…”78 In this scheme, the portici of the Columnar and South Peristyles, which feature the same patterns, are also marked as transitional areas not to be lingered in. The more elaborate geometric pavements of the Basilica’s Nave, Apses, and the East and West Hemicycles thus marked areas intended for congregation and business, while the marble grids of the East and West Colonnades marked an intermediate space suitable for both meeting and passage. Given the decorative unity with the Forum expressed by the Temple area, a similar use of paving patterns would not be unexpected. Unfortunately there is not at present enough information on the pavement of the curved porticus, platea Traiani, and cella of the Temple to test if this is the case. For the time being, it remains only an attractive possibility. Comparanda from the Forum of Augustus, at least, suggest the usage patterns of large open squares with portici and temples: transition through the square, congregation around specific columns and statues in the porticoes, and resting and meeting atop temple podia.79 The particular marbles used in the Forum and Temple, especially giallo antico and pavonazzetto, are allusive to Imperial victories.80 Thus, the use of these marbles in the Forum of Trajan amplifies its celebration of Trajan’s victories over Dacia, while their use in the Temple of Divine Trajan taps into this rich vein of meaning. A knowledge of how Roman intellectuals understood and employed color allows us to further characterize what these columns mean when they communicate ‘Imperial victory.’ As a well-read man, our Equestrian recalls how poets used the term flavus, “blonde, golden” when he sees the columns of giallo antico. In verse, flavus primarily described the beautiful hair 78 Packer, 1997: 269, 272 and 2001: 181 Neudecker, 2010: 163-171 80 Claridge, 2007: 74. Indeed, gold and purple were the two colors of the Triumphator’s tunica palmata. 79 Lee 33 of immortals and youths, as well as gold, corn, sand, and the sea.81 As such, to use giallo antico columns alludes to immortal beauty, wealth, and bounty. In the Forum of Trajan, it refers to them in the context of Imperial victory via conquest. In the Temple of Trajan, the columns’ direct association with the house of the god emphasizes the immortal aspect of beauty, and casts wealth and bounty into a more timeless light. By the reign of Augustus, purple had become a “sine qua non” of imperial imagery.82 When our Equestrian sees the cool purple pavonazzetto columns, he recalls not only their imperial associations, but also how the term purpureus is used poetically to describe the flowing movements of water, swans, and blood.83 The Roman use of the color purple broke down what is to moderns a barrier between violence and luxury. This is an especially pregnant perception of the pavonazzetto columns and even the purple veins of the giallo antico shafts in a Forum financed by blood and treasure from Dacia, and a Temple housing the divine spirit of the emperor whose conquests brought Dacia into the Roman fold at the cost of numerous Roman and Dacian lives. For those with a poetic knowledge of color, the Forum and Temple of Trajan celebrate Imperial triumph as a violently beautiful affair. Conclusion This paper has endeavored to describe how an educated Roman of the mid-second century A.D. might experience the Temple of Divine Trajan and its immediate environs. 81 Bradley, 2009: 1-12. In Silvae 1.5.36 Statius describes the giallo antico columns in the private baths of Claudius Etruscus with the term flavus. 82 Bradley, 2009: 201 83 Bradley, 2009: 190-191: “Blood this color is simultaneously picturesque, precious, violent and irreversible – physically and metaphorically staining everything around it.” Lee 34 It employed Rapoport’s levels of meaning and features of built environments, the materialization of ideology as posited by DeMarrais, Castillo, and Earle, and Gieryn’s analysis of buildings through the lenses of heterogeneous design, black-boxing, and interpretive flexibility to provide a firm theoretical anchor for its fictional framing device of a newly minted Equestrian lawyer. Through his eyes, we have seen above how the arrangement of different permanent and movable features about the platea Traiani inform the Equestrian’s experience of the space at a low level by advising his movements and providing handy landmarks for navigating the space and organizing meetings with clients. We have seen how the height, positioning, and polychromy of the Temple relative to its immediate surroundings and the Forum of Trajan materializes imperial ideology, primarily at a high level of meaning. This paper was originally conceived of as an experiential analysis of the entire Forum of Trajan complex, including the Temple. Time and space constraints made this original intention impossible. The present paper is a scaled-down version, which the author recognizes carries its own advantages. Given the pitfalls of experiential readings of ancient space, in particular the fictive elements these often require, this paper serves as an experiment to assessing how well a solid theoretical grounding can circumvent such obstacles. At present, the application is rough. This is in large part due to the organizational and conceptual challenges of wedding three scholars’ related but unique approaches to Space and Place and successfully deploying the resulting package. In the author’s judgment, the application of Gieryn’s approach was hurt by our very incomplete knowledge of the chronology of the Temple area. When paired with Rapoport and Lee 35 DeMarrais et al., the greatest analytical strength of Gieryn’s approach lies in its diachronic conception of built environments. Without a clear sense of how the Temple area changes over time, Gieryn’s toolkit was largely reduced to black-boxing, which largely became synonymous with the materialization of ideology. The author’s analysis of meaning also tended to cluster at the higher levels, with the lower and middle levels either addressed quickly and dispensed with or kept implicit. As such, this paper has been a challenging but fruitful exercise in the application of theory to understand ancient experience. With further work and honing, the analytical package used above could provide a fulfilling answer to the question “How does our Equestrian experience space upon ascending the steps from the Temple area, and entering the Forum of Trajan proper?” Lee 36 Bibliography Bradley, Mark. Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). Chenault, Robert. “Statues of Senators in the Forum of Trajan and the Roman Forum in Late Antiquity.” Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 102 (November, 2012), pp. 103132. Claridge, Amanda. “Hadrian’s Lost Temple of Trajan.” Journal of Roman Archaeology, Vol. 20 (2007), pp. 54-94. Claridge, Amanda. 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